Available for virtual visits in : Kamloops (B.C), Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia & Saskatchewan
Home Province: Ontario
Craft: Author-Illustrator
Genre: Picture Books
Target Audience: Kindergarten – 3
Cost for School and Public Virtual Workshop Program with CCBC subsidy: $200.00
Website: www.RuthOhi.com
Virtual Workshop Information
OPTION # 1:
Choose Kindness: Picturing Stories for Primaries
Age Range: Kindergarten, Grade K-3, Family Literacy Events
Session Length: 45 minutes
Have your favourite crayon or pencil and paper ready to draw along! Using samples from my latest picture book, “Choose Kindness” and recent releases, I share how I write and draw for picture books. Using my dual camera home studio setup, students can see props, art samples and any book being read close up!
Through a fun and interactive Call & Response Draw Along, students brainstorm characters and build story ideas. Sessions include Q&A and a reading. Sessions can be customized to suit your students’ interests. My most successful sessions are when the age range is minimized. Students will need 1-2 sheets of paper (8.5×11 is fine) and something to draw with for the Draw Along (crayons, pencils, pens -erasers not needed).
Smaller audiences allow a more interactive Q&A and Call & Response Draw Along. The number of attendees with windows open can have an effect on time lags and freezing issues.
Teachers may wish to prepare some questions with the students ahead of time for the Q&A segment.
Photographs are fine and appreciated, but please no audio/video recording – thanks for understanding.
OPTION # 2:
Choose Kindness: Picturing Stories Cartooning Workshop
Age Range: Grades 1-3
Session Length: 45 minutes
Creating picture books and comics have a lot in common. They both tell stories through drawing and words using a limited number of panels. Session includes sharing early messy sketches from “Choose Kindness” and anecdotes that step students through brainstorming characters and building plot ideas. A large part of the workshop is a hands on Draw Along where students have the chance to discover ways to warm up the imagination, tips to capture action and expression in characters and how to max out a story in a 3 panel comic strip. Each student will need 3-4 sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper and something to draw with (erasers are not needed). The last 15 minutes is typically a Q&A combined with a Draw Along where students can ask more specific questions (“how do you draw feet?”, “how do you draw hands?”) which I can then demo. My goal is to make this workshop accessible to those who feel ‘I can’t draw’ to students who are ready to challenge themselves.
Photographs are fine and appreciated, but please no audio/video recording – thanks for understanding.
Screensharing Test Before Actual Events:
I would like to book a date to do a quick screen sharing test with the person who will be hosting using the event’s platform.
If you could let me know a few date/timeslots in the afternoon that work for you, we could go from there to book a quick tech test. This test should take no more than 10 minutes. This is not a presentation, but a chance to ask questions and review event format. An exchange of phone numbers for day of event emergency (eg. “We just lost Wifi.”) is useful.
Could the host kindly be responsible for:
– event platform, security, invitations, waiting room, chat stream
– introducing the author to begin the session
– keeping an eye on the clock for pacing ( eg. “We have time for maybe one more question.”)
– closing the session
Book List
A Selection of Ruth Ohi’s titles :
“Choose Kindness” (2021, Scholastic Canada),
“Friends for Real” (by Ted Staunton/2020 Scholastic Canada),
“No Help Wanted” (2019,Scholastic Canada),
“Fox and Squirrel Help Out” (2018, Scholastic Canada),
“Scribble” (2016, Scholastic Canada),
“Fox and Squirrel the Best Christmas Ever” (2016, Scholastic Canada),
“Fox and Squirrel Make a Friend” (2014, Scholastic Canada),
“Shh! My Brother’s Napping” (2014, Scholastic Canada)
“Fox and Squirrel” (2013,Scholastic Canada),
“Kenta and the Big Wave” (2013, Annick Press),
The Chicken, Pig, Cow Series (Annick Press).